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A basic evaluation question


How much is this worth?  

37 members have voted

  1. 1. How much is this worth?

    • 14
      0
    • 15
      1
    • 16
      27
    • 17
      8
    • 18
      1


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KT6

J5

AQJ87

KQ8

 

What is this worth in terms of "points"?

 

Playing a 14-16 NT, would you open 1NT?

 

Also, please do not hesitate to use "wtp" or potentially "LOL" since I thought this was simple, but Lynn Deas and a few others thought otherwise.

 

Edit: Lynn and at least 5 others thought that this was worth 17.

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4(3.33)=13.33. 13.33-16=-2.33. -2.33:-1.

 

16-1=15.

 

+1 for AQJxx = 16.

 

So, 16.

 

Answer: yes. Open 1NT. WTP, Lynn Deass and others notwithstanding?

 

What, they want +1 for the five-card suit but want to ignore the control-poor nature of the hand, and the stranded Jack for that matter?

 

I mean, the one 10 with the King is nice. I like that a lot. I could be persuded that this is 16.25.

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Most of the points are in aces and kings, and it's a got a good 5-card suit, so I can see thinking twice about upgrading it. However, on the downside, you have the doubleton jack, and no tens (or even nines). I'd call it a good 16, but I wouldn't upgrade it out of a 14-16 NT opener.
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I am a big fan of upgrading into or beyond various notrump ranges, but this is not one on which I would upgrade. As others have stated, that jx is a negative feature for an upgrade. In addition, we have only 4 controls, which is about average for a 14-16 1N opener, so this is another 'non-upgrade' factor.

 

I don't have any rule about 'factors'... my decisions to upgrade or not are subconscious, in that I decide whether I 'like' the hand too much to open in the notrump range in question, but if I were to adopt a conscious analysis, I think that having an equal number of flaws and positives would mean don't upgrade. Here, the strong 5 card suit is a positive, the 10 in the K10x is a positive, but the Jx and the lack of 'extra' controls constitute offsetting negatives.

 

In other words, to upgrade requires on balance a compelling reason. This hand doesn't measure up imo.

 

A10x xx AQJ87 KQx is an upgrade for me.

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Can't add much to the discussion. I would upgrade the nice diamond suit and downgrade the Jx. I would consider the hand 16 and open accordingly.

 

One other point is that when playing a 14-16 NT, we are then forced to rebid 2NT on 17-19, so I normally prefer to include good 16 counts in 1NT.

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Hi,

 

16.

 

I would open 1NT.

 

It is a max. for this opening (and I would also sell

it as a max. playing 15-17).

The question is, if you dont open 1NT, what is the

alternative? Selling it as 17-18?

 

If yes, than this is find, if 17-19, I think the band with

is too high, you may find yourself begging partner

to stop bidding, sometimes one happens to have super

max.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

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Thanks everybody for confirming that I hadn't lost my mind ;)

No one said that - they just said that this hand was worth about 16 HCP.

 

:)

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Without looking at other answers I decided 16.

 

The negatives: Jx is worth next to nothing. Ths 5332 shape is so-so. It doesn't have good spot cards.

 

Positives: Good 5-card suit. Most of the secondary cards have support cards.

 

Positives and negatives pretty much wash out - I'd say 16 with a slight + but not enough to be 16 1/2.

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Most of the points are in aces and kings, and it's a got a good 5-card suit, so I can see thinking twice about upgrading it. However, on the downside, you have the doubleton jack, and no tens (or even nines). I'd call it a good 16, but I wouldn't upgrade it out of a 14-16 NT opener.

16 HCP has an average of around about 5.4 Controls. So while 10/16 HCP are aces or kings this is a below average number of aces and kings in a 16 HCP hand.

 

These functions are approximations (fairly good) to the numbers or aces, kings, queens, jacks in a hand with given HCP.

 

ACES = 0.15 * HCP - 0.5 e.g. with 16 HCP we expect 1.9 ACES

 

KINGS = 0.1 * HCP e.g. with 16 HCP we expect 1.6 KINGS

 

QUEENS = 0.05 * HCP + 0.5 e.g. with 16 HCP we expect 1.3 Queens

 

JACKS = 1 HCP. Yes independent of the number of HCP. e.g. with 16 HCP we expect 1 Jack.

 

The actual hand has

 

1 ACE which is 0.9 ACEs fewer than average

 

2 KINGs which is 0.4 KINGs more than average

 

2 QUEENs which is 0.7 QUEENs more than average

 

2 JACKs which is 1 JACK more than average

 

I also keep in my mind the approximation for CONTROLS (A=2 K=1) which you can obtain from the approximations above for ACEs and KINGs.

 

CONTROLs = 0.4 * HCP - 1 e.g. with 16 HCP we expect 5.4 CONTROLs as stated at the beginning of this post.

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Without looking at other answers I decided 16.

 

The negatives: Jx is worth next to nothing. Ths 5332 shape is so-so. It doesn't have good spot cards.

 

Positives: Good 5-card suit. Most of the secondary cards have support cards.

 

Positives and negatives pretty much wash out - I'd say 16 with a slight + but not enough to be 16 1/2.

Agree with this. The AQJxx is offset by the Jx.

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